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Project Noah Nature School
Argiope aurantia
Yellow Wasp Spider / Orb Weaver / Web Writer Largish spider, probably the largest that I have ever seen in Western NY. As an avid nature nut/photographer, I was surprised five years ago when I first came across this species.
Over grown fields, hedge rows, gardens.
One day a couple of weeks ago I was inspecting the fencing around the pasture lot out by the barn and almost ran smack dab into the 2.5 ft wide, 3.5 ft tall web, spun between several large stalks of Golden Rod. Of course I was super excited, because I had my camera with me, with my everyday macro lens. I was able to capture both the top and bottom of the spider. Even better, I was able to capture the spider as it pulled a standard (trapped) House Fly, from it's confines within a section of the super strong sticky web.
Michelle, this one was probably 2.5 inches or so from abdomen to head, she was definitely the largest I have had in the yard so far. If you notice in the photos there is a Japanese beetle that is caught up in the web. ;-) They are absolutely awesome spiders!
Thank you both for the comments!! :-D
Nice spotting! How big was she, if you remember... I came across one of these a few days ago, and it was one of the biggest spiders I had ever seen!
Her abdomen alone was at least an inch long, 3/4 inch wide... maybe more. Mine didn't have the classic zigzag web, but apparently some will eat it in the mornings. It was a night of hard rain also, so maybe just timing.
Here is my spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/737...
They're definitely good at what they do. I remember seeing another species in the Argiope genus in a field: wrapping up a two inch long grasshopper in silk to be eaten.
Thank you! I have watched these spiders over the past few years and it appears that the Japanese Beatles are a favorite food for these guys. (as you can imagine I encourage these spiders in all of the flower and vegetable gardens we have) I have gone as far as to relocate several from the surrounding fields to the gardens where they do absolutely wonderful work keeping the pests from the plants. (after only a few days the population of Japanese Beatles is drastically reduced, and after month they are almost nonexistent)
Looks like it caught a Japanese beetle. That's what I like to see: nature doing its part to combat invasive species.
Spotted on Jul 31, 2011
Submitted on Aug 7, 2011
